Great Job Panthers

BUCKLAND — When Pioneer Valley Regional School needed someone to turn to on Friday night, it looked toward its star running back, and junior Bryce Dobosz responded.
After fumbling three times earlier in the game, Dobosz showed why he has become one of the most feared backs in Franklin County, scoring a pair of second-half touchdowns to save Pioneer's playoff hopes and lead the Panthers to a 24-14 win over Mohawk Trail Regional High School at Pollard Field.
The victory keeps Pioneer’s hopes for the fourth and final playoff spot in the WMass Division IV-A field alive. With Lee High School's 33-7 win over McCann Technical High School on Friday night, the Wildcats became playoff-eligible at 4-4, and it's all going to come down to the Walker System rating for both teams. Pioneer is 5-2 overall, but plays in a weaker division, so Lee's strength of schedule is higher. It is believed — but not confirmed — that Lee's rating could take a hit if Ware High School beats Palmer High School this afternoon in Ware, and that might give Pioneer just enough of an edge to become the third team out of the Tri-County League to qualify.
Both Pioneer and Mohawk entered Friday's game in position to possibly qualify for the postseason, and for a while, it looked like neither team was going to grab the bull by the horns. The two squads combined to put the ball on the ground 10 times. Six of those fumbles wound up in the hands of the defense, with Mohawk giving the ball away four times.
Pioneer managed to take control of the game in the second half with 16 unanswered points, after it went into the break trailing 14-8 as Mohawk scored a go-ahead touchdown with 4.4 seconds left in the first half. Pioneer did cough up the ball on the opening drive of the second half, but the Panthers’ defense held tough and forced a Mohawk punt that put the Pioneer offense to work at the Warriors' 49.

At that point, Dobosz took over. Led by a line that was opening up holes, and fullbacks Tristan Dresser and Terrell Hicks leading the way, Dobosz took every carry of a 10-play, 49-yard drive. He punched in the game-tying touchdown on a 8-yard run with 8 minutes, 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter that was sprung by a vicious block by Dresser. Digging even deeper into his bag of tricks, Dobosz was then called upon to work out of the "Wildcat formation" on the two-point conversion (due to a brief injury to quarterback Alex Tyson). The conversion try was pushed back to the 8 on a false start, but Dobosz still managed to sweep to his right and find his way into the end zone to put Pioneer on top to stay at 16-14.
Mohawk was not done following the Dobosz score, and looked like it might come right back. Jonny Herbert took the ensuing kickoff at his own 26 and returned it 39 yards to the Pioneer 35, setting up the Warriors offense with great field position. But disaster struck for the fourth and final time on the first play of the drive, when Herbert fumbled on a dive play, giving the ball back to Pioneer with 8:09 to play. The Panthers put the nail in the coffin as they went on a 67-yard, 11-play scoring drive capped off by Dobosz's 6-yard run. Dobosz also ran in the two-pointer for a 24-14 lead with 2:38 left. Mohawk's final possession ended when the Warriors fumbled the snap on fourth down.

Dobosz finished with 185 yards on 37 carries to lead the Panthers. Dresser added 14 yards on four hauls, and Hicks added 12 on three carries. Tyson finished 4-of-8 passing for 48 yards.
Pioneer had a chance to open up an early lead as both of Mohawk's first two possessions ended with fumbles inside its own territory. Both times Pioneer was unable to crack the end zone, and the game remained scoreless through the first quarter. Mohawk ended the first quarter with its third possession of the game and was putting together the beginnings of the game's first scoring drive. In what could only be described as methodical, the Warriors began a 21-play, 75-yard drive with 4:43 left in the first quarter and ended when quarterback Kamron Hoff took the ball in from a yard out with 5:25 left in the second quarter. The drive took a whopping 10:18 off the clock, and when Herbert ran in the two-point conversion, saw the Warriors with a 8-0 lead.
Pioneer tied the game after Mohawk fumbled for the third time and set up the Panthers at the Warriors' 27. It took four plays for Dobosz to find the end zone from 5 yards out, and his conversion attempt was true with 1:36 left for a 8-8 tie. It looked like that would be how the teams would go into the break, but each squad began using its timeouts, and Mohawk was forced to punt to Pioneer, which took over at its own 12 with 31.5 seconds to go. With timeouts left, the Panthers decided to see what they could do. Pioneer wound up fumbling on the fourth play of the drive, and Mohawk set up at the Pioneer 16 with 9.8 seconds left. On the first play of the drive, Hoff hit Caleb Fitzgerald for a 16-yard touchdown pass to put Mohawk up 14-8 at the break.
“Give Mohawk a lot of credit, they played well and they had us confused blocking in the first half with what they were doing,” Worth said. “We weren’t in sync in that first half, and we just didn’t play well. They were beating us off the line of scrimmage that entire first half.”
Herbert finished with 81 yards on 22 carries on his Senior Night to lead Mohawk, while up-and-coming sophomore back Jordan Grenier continued to impress with 58 yards on nine carries.